The shortage of child care options in Goshen County has prompted a local church to raise money for an expansion of Torrington Learning Center. All Saints Episcopal Church in Torrington is sponsoring the Building for Babies program, which aims to provide seed money to expand services at TLC.

Clark Burden, executive director of Wyoming Child and Family Development at TLC, and Mary Jellison, the pastor at All Saints, said the church’s contributions will help raise money to expand TLC’s existing facilities. TLC currently serves over 100 local children, but Burden said there are between 40-50 children on the facility’s waiting list. The expansion would enable TLC to enroll approximately 30 more children from the Goshen County area.

To raise funds, All Saints’ Building for Babies program is holding a raffle for a trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The winner will receive a one-week stay at a resort in Cabo (from Feb. 23 to March 2, 2009), donated by an All Saints parishoner, plus $1,000 in cash. Tickets are $5 and are available at All Saints, TLC, Pinnacle Bank, First State Bank and Our Clothing Store. Proceeds from the ticket sales will be used to help fund the TLC expansion.

In addition to money provided by the Building for Babies program, Burden said TLC hopes to receive funding for the expansion from matching grants and block grants. He said that although Wyoming Child and Family Development does receive federal money to fund the county’s Head Start and Even Start programs, those monies cannot be used for building projects.

Burden said TLC hopes to add on to its existing facility, located south of Eastern Wyoming College off West C Street. He said TLC is discussing the possible expansion with the college. He said TLC may also consider moving to a new, larger location, but said expansion of the existing facility would be preferable.

“It would be ideal to have it where we’re already operating,” he said.

The expansion would serve 32 more children and would require an additional eight full-time staff members, plus several additional aides.

This is not the first time All Saints has contributed funding for child care in Goshen County – the church has provided money for a variety of TLC projects for approximately four years. According to Burden, All Saints’ Wind and Wings program has provided numerous scholarships to help keep local families enrolled in the Even Start program. To date, the church has provided 10 local high school and middle school student-parents and 14 college-age parents the opportunity to stay in school and receive credit for participating in the Even Start program, and has helped 23 families with emergency childcare assistance.

According to Burden, there has been a 21 percent decrease in Goshen County child care providers in the last year, even though 80 percent of providers reported the need for more licensed care slots. Child care costs, which can exceed $5,000 per year, are hard for many local families to afford. With the proposed expansion.

TLC hopes to make a dent in the county’s child care needs.

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